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Article published In: Political discourse analysis of female political leaders in the Global South
Edited by Mark Nartey
[Journal of Language and Politics 23:1] 2024
► pp. 113–137

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Constitutive representation of womanhood

An examination of legitimation strategies used by Turkish female deputies during the headscarf debate

ORCiD logo with link | Bilkent University
ORCiD logo with link | Bilkent University
Published online: 10 November 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.22147.ugu
Abstract
This article analyzes the speeches of Turkish female parliamentarians during the headscarf debate. We examine how deputies with different political and ideological predilections discursively construct women’s rights and employ legitimation strategies to validate their policy position. The findings reveal that on the one hand, the female deputies use different legitimation strategies to justify arguments for or against the use of headscarves in the public sector. On the other hand, they embed the headscarf debate into the broader political goals they pursue in a polarized political setting. They deploy legitimation strategies around the headscarf debate to rationalize future policy on issues ranging from the expansion of human rights and democracy to the change of the type of political regime.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Legitimation as a discursive tool
  • 3.Research design
  • 4.Contextual background
    • The headscarf issue in Turkey
    • Political parties in Turkey
  • 5.Discursive legitimation and the lifting of the headscarf ban
    • CHP: The bulwark against patriarchy and repression
    • AKP: The headscarf as a banner of freedom
    • DTP/BDP: The headscarf as a primer for further democratization
    • MHP: A pragmatic defense of the headscarf
  • 6.Different uses of the headscarf as a resource for legitimation after the headscarf liberalization
    • AKP: Subjugating women’s voices under the AKP agenda
    • BDP/HDP: The headscarf issue and the chain of equivalence
    • CHP: Exposing the moral contradictions of the AKP’s headscarf policy
  • 7.Discussion and conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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2025. Applying the Analytical Framework. In Discourse Theory, Critical Discourse Studies and Corpus Linguistics [Advancing Methods for Interdisciplinarity in the Social Sciences, ], ► pp. 55 ff. DOI logo

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